Sony has officially confirmed the closure of Firewalk Studios, responsible for the failed PvP shooter Concord. After journalist and insider Jason Schreier reported this to Bloomberg, the company published own statement, where she noted that the game was closed forever. This means that the servers will not be reopened, and the shooter itself will not be transferred to a shareware model, as previously assumed.
PlayStation Studios head Hermann Hulst admitted that while some aspects of Concord were “exceptional”, the final result failed to excite players. Despite the company’s intention to further develop the PvP direction, there is a certain amount of caution in the statement – indicating that Sony hopes to “learn lessons” from the unsuccessful launch of the shooter. Development of the Concord lasted at least four years, but according to some sources it achieved only 25 thousand sales on a budget of several hundred million dollars. The maximum online on Steam was only 697 people. The shooter’s servers were shut down two weeks after release, on September 6, 2024.
Sony also closed the Neon Koi studio, which was developing the now-canceled mobile game. At the same time, the company noted that the development of the mobile segment remains an important area for them.
The statement said that the decision to close the two studios was not made without difficulty and was dictated by the need to strengthen the studio business. The company promises to find new positions for some Firewalk and Neon Koi employees in other studios within the Sony Interactive Entertainment ecosystem.
